Another doozy on a Saturday night.
We’ll go ahead and call Maple Leafs–Capitals the most exciting opening-round playoff series (so far) now that two games are in the books for all eight matchups.
One hundred and one shots, 10 power plays, 19,000 cowbells, 105 hits, 61 blocked shots, two stellar goaltending performances, four-plus hours of action, two bonus periods, and, according to rookie hero Kasperi Kapanen, a seed of doubt has been planted “100 per cent” in the favourites’ mind.
For the second consecutive game, the series needed overtime to decide a winner, and again it was a fourth-line winger who plunged the knife and swallowed the hugs.
Here are 10 takeaways from the Leafs’ 4-3 double-OT thriller in Washington, which knots the series at one game apiece and shifts home-ice advantage to Toronto.
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Big goals? Kapanen has a knack for ’em
Sly, stubbled veteran Brian Boyle fed 20-year-old Kapanen with a sneaky little blind backhand pass from behind the net in the second overtime, and the kid made no mistake in front.
Not only did Kapanen become the first Leafs rookie to score an OT playoff goal since Gerry Ehman in 1959, the speedy Finn also scored the golden goal at the 2016 world juniors and his first career NHL goal was the critical tying goal last Saturday versus Pittsburgh in Toronto’s playoff clincher.
No more cowbell
Even Christopher Walken himself would’ve been satisfied with the quantity of cowbell at Verizon Center Saturday night.
Nineteen thousand cowbells were given away to the red-rocking fans in D.C., and the distinct communal clang of the musical instrument for novices rang out throughout the game.
True story: Back in 2013, Mississippi State was smacked with a $25,000 fine for violating SEC’s Artificial Noisemaker policy. Too many fans wouldn’t quit ringing the cowbell. We get it now.
Roman has fallen
A frightening reality for all those bouncing up and down while entranced by the giant video screens at Maple Leaf Square: The Leafs’ weak spot just got weaker.
When 221-pound Capitals defender Brooks Orpik levelled Roman Polak with a clean hit in Period 2, the veteran Toronto defenceman spun and landed awkwardly, twisting his right ankle or knee something fierce. The big Czech winced and clutched at his right leg and needed multiple trainers to help him hobble off.
With Polak out early and the game drifting into a fifth period, Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner and Matt Hunwick each exceeded 35 minutes of playing time. (Not one Capital hit the 34-minute mark.)
“[Polak] is a big part of our team. We still don’t know what his future is, but he’s a tough guy,” Rielly said during intermission. “If there’s anybody that can play hurt, it’s him.”
Polak’s hockey season is over.
“Usually he’s giving out pain; he’s not usually receiving it,” coach Mike Babcock said recently. “Roman is one of those guys who isn’t affected by pain very much.”
So it must be bad. Worse: Though Nikita Zaitsev skated Saturday and will again Sunday, he is questionable for Monday. Alexei Marchenko is the top reserve on the depth chart. Like Polak and Zaitsev, he’s a right shot.
Dart Guy goes viral
One man’s path to success: Paint logo on face, shave Stanley Cup onto scalp, dye beard blue, pop in a dart, become everyone’s favourite hockey meme for a day.
Jake Gardiner is a playoff performer
Yes, we know Gardiner’s failed zone clear led to Nicklas Backstrom’s game-tying goal.
Despite that play — the result of one exhausting 94-second shift — Gardiner was Toronto’s most impactful and trusted defenceman.
His wonderful spin-o-rama at the blue line and edgework cutting to the slot created James van Riemsdyk’s opening goal and gave the defenceman his seventh point in eight career playoff games. He broke up plays in his own zone and created chances in Washington’s. Most telling, Babcock has trusted him with more ice than any other Leaf.
Gardiner skated a team-high 26:27 in Game 1 and a game-high 40:34 in Game 2.
Ovechkin’s checks in at the office
“Ovie only needs one shot,” Babcock foreshadowed prior to Game 2.
A rather contained Alex Ovechkin was held to just one shot in Game 1, but the Great 8’s first puck on net in Game 2 — from his right-circle office, on the power play — struck mesh just 15 seconds into a man advantage.
Much more of an impact player in Game 2, Ovie would finish with a game-high nine shots, including a breakaway chance hopping out of the penalty box in the waning moments of the first OT that was hindered by a backchecking Mitch Marner.
On the flip side, the Leafs’ most feared sniper, Auston Matthews, has been limited to five shots total over the series’ nine periods. The rookie averaged 3.4 shots per game in the regular season. But he had five blocked shots Saturday, more than any Leaf.
Less time, less space.
Justin Williams flipping Leo Komarov’s lid is the best faceoff tomfoolery
Leafs can blow leads and regain them and cough them up and still win
As in Game 1, the Leafs hit the scoreboard first, but Washington responded with back-to-back power-play markers — Ovechkin’s snipe and a John Carlson slapper from the high slot — to take the lead.
This time, however, Toronto clawed back. Kapanen, who scored his first NHL goal the night the Leafs clinched their playoff berth, registered his first playoff goal with a backhander in the slot, tying the game at two.
The play was challenged as Caps coach Barry Trotz suspected an offside zone entry, but the bang-bang play at the blue line was inconclusive and Kapanen’s goal stood up.
Building on Toronto’s late second-period momentum, Rielly zipped a seeing-eye wrister through traffic, and Toronto took a 3-2 lead with just 14 seconds remaining in Period 2.
“Good screen. We work on that a lot. We knew we had to get pucks on the net,” Rielly said. “Just got lucky.”
Of course, that lead would not last….
Capitals’ top line delivers on marathon shift
The Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie trio was dangerous all night long, but no more so than during a 5-on-5 shift midway through the third in which they had the exhausted Leafs hemmed in their own zone for 1:18 consecutively.
The prolonged pressure finally succeeded when Backstrom, darting to the doorstep, finished off a nice slap pass from Dmitry Orlov.
Ladies #CapsLeafs pic.twitter.com/qft8E1kMvL
— Taylor Winnik (@TaylorWinnik) April 15, 2017
Refs call everything until they don’t call anything
Led by referee Tim Peel, the officials called a hefty 10 minor penalties resulting in three power-play goals in the first two periods, then tucked the whistles away completely in the third and for most of the two overtimes.
Wildly inconsistent, both from game to game and period to period.
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